2. Syllabus Statements
• 3.5.1: Outline the issues involved in the imbalance in
global food supply
• 3.5.2: Compare and contrast the efficiency of terrestrial
and aquatic food production systems
• 3.5.3: Compare and contrast the inputs of materials and
energy (energy efficiency), the system characteristics,
and evaluate the relative environmental impacts of two
named food production systems
• 3.5.4: Discuss the links that exist between social
systems and food production systems
4. Unequal food resources
• The methods of food production differ
around the world
• Government policy and the climate of the
area influence what is grown
• The type used depends on relative
availability of land, labor, capital, and fossil
fuels
5. Production Methods
Developed Countries
– Industrialized agriculture depends heavily on
capital and fossil fuels
Developing Countries
– Intensive traditional agriculture depends
heavily on labor
– Shifting cultivation in tropical forests depends
heavily on land availability no fossil fuels
– Nomadic herding depends heavily on land
7. Industrialized agriculture
in developed countries
Intensive traditional agriculture
in developing countries
Land
Labor
Capital
Fossil fuel
energy
Land
Labor
Capital
Fossil fuel energy
8. Shifting cultivation in tropical
forests in developing countries
Nomadic herding in
developing countries
Land
Labor
Capital
Land
Labor
Capital
9. Distribution of food
• Enough food produced in the world for entire
population to have 2,720 kcal per day
• Many areas no land to grow food or money to
purchase it
• 982 million people living in poverty – actually a
decrease in 20% from 1990’s
• ¼ of the world population consumes ¾ of the
food
10.
11. Population distribution in
poverty
Region % in $1 a day
poverty
Population
(millions)
Pop. in $1 a day
poverty (millions)
East Asia and Pacific 9.07 1,885.0 170.0
Latin America and the Caribbean 8.63 549.0 47.0
South Asia 31.08 1,470.0 456.0
Sub-Saharan Africa 41.09 753.0 309.0
Total Developing countries 982.0
Europe and Central Asia 0.95 460.0 1.0
Middle East and North Africa 1.47 306.0 4.0
Total 987
12. Influence of Ecology
• Developed countries in temperate areas –
plants and soils conducive to growth of
high yield cereal crops and livestock
• Soil fertility poor in tropical areas
• Livestock native to temperate areas in
most cases as well
13. Influence of Socio-political
factors
• Poverty is a self sustaining positive feedback
process
• Governments in LDCs focus on exploitation of
resources – Bananas in Costa Rica
• Governments in developed nations subsidize
fossil fuels
• Support use of high yield green revolution crops
• Research on and use of GMOs
15. Food Type Kilocalories of fossil fuel input per kilocalorie of protein output
Feed lot beef 20-78
Pigs
Broiler chicken
Rangeland Beef
Sheep
Vegetables
35
22
10
10
2-4
16. First green revolution
(developed countries)
Second green revolution
(developing countries)
Major international agricultural
research centers and seed banks
19. Phase 1
Make Modified Gene
Identify and extract
gene with desired trait
Identify and remove
portion of DNA
with desired trait
Remove plasmid
from DNA of E. coli
Insert extracted DNA
(step 2) into plasmid
(step3)
Insert modified
plasmid into E. coli
Grow in tissue
culture to
make copies
cell
gene
DNA
Plasmid
E. coli
DNA
Genetically
modified
plasmid
plasmid
20. Phase 2
Make Transgenic Cell
Transfer plasmid
copies to a carrier
agrobacterium
Agrobacterium
inserts foreign
DNA into plant
cell to yield
transgenic cell
Transfer plasmid
to surface
microscopic metal
particle
Use gene gun
to inject DNA
into plant cell
A. tumefaciens
(agrobacterium)
Plant cell
Nucleus
Host DNA
Foreign DNA
21. Phase 3
Grow Genetically Engineered Plant
Transgenic cell
from Phase 2
Cell division of
transgenic cells
Culture cells
to form plantlets
Transgenic plants
with new traits
22. Projected
Advantages
Projected
Disadvantages
Need less fertilizer
Need less water
More resistant to
insects, plant
disease, frost, and
drought
Faster growth
Can grow in slightly
salty soils
Less spoilage
Better flavor
Less use of con-
ventional pesticides
Tolerate higher
levels of herbicide
use
Irreversible and
unpredictable
genetic and eco-
logical effects
Harmful toxins in
food from possible
plant cell mutations
New allergens
in food
Lower nutrition
Increased evolution
of pesticide-
resistant insects
and plant diseases
Creation of herbicide-
resistant weeds
Harm beneficial
insects
Lower genetic
diversity
Use of
GMOs
26. Terrestrial vs. Aquatic Differences
Terrestrial
• Most food at low trophic
levels
• Producers or Herbivores
• Less energy loss
between initial input and
level of harvest
Aquatic
• Most food harvested at higher
trophic levels
• Makes total energy storages
smaller
• Due to tastes for fish / particularly
large predatory ones
• Energy conversion in this system is
more efficient – sizes and lack of
structural material in low trophic
levels
• Initial amount of sunlight fixed is
less efficient because of reflection
and absorbtion by water
27. Systems of Production
1. Croplands
- grains, 76% of worlds food
2. Rangelands
- grazing meat production, 17% worlds food
3. Oceanic fisheries
- 7% world food
Growth in production b/c technology
Challenge providing for future population
28. Food Production Systems
• There are many food production systems around
the world
• They vary depending on the geography,
sociopolitical dimensions, culture, needs of the
area
• They also vary based on the characteristics of
the food being produced
• We will look at a comparison of two of these
many systems
• Many areas of the world are dependent on
fisheries for food
33. Spotter airplane
Fish farming
in cage
Trawler
fishing
Purse-seine
fishing
sonartrawl flap
trawl
lines
trawl bag
Long line fishing
lines with
hooks
Drift-net fishing
Fish caught
by gills
float buoy
fish school
34. Now we farm fish
• Fish is a major component of the human
diet
• Some countries almost exclusively based
on seafood – Japan
• With wild stocks being increasingly
depleted, we are turning to fish farming for
various reasons as an alternative
35. Figur
e 13-
31
Seafood type Kilocalories of fossil fuel input per kilocalorie of protein output
Marine Fisheries
Shrimp
Salmon
Cod
Ocean Aquaculture
Salmon cage
culture
Salmon ranching
Seaweed
3-98
18-52
20
50
7-12
1
36. Advantages
Highly efficient
High yield in small
volume of water
Increased yields
through
crossbreeding
and genetic
engineering
Can reduce
overharvesting
of conventional
fisheries
Little use of fuel
Profit not tired to
price of oil
High profits
Disadvantages
Large inputs of
land, feed, and
water needed
Produces large
and concentrated
outputs of waste
Destroys
mangrove forests
Increased grain
production
needed to feed
some species
Fish can be killed
by pesticide runoff
from nearby
cropland
Dense populations
vulnerable to
disease
Tanks too
contaminated to
use after about
5 years
37. System 1: Rice-Fish Farming -
China
• Fish farming in wet rice fields
• In China, Han Dynasty plate (2000 years old)
shows fish swimming from pond to field
• Ecological symbiosis in the system – fish
provides fertilizer to rice, regulates micro-
climatic conditions, softens the soil, disturbs the
water, and eats larvae and weeds in the flooded
fields; rice provides shade and food for fish.
• Provides balanced food, reduced costs and
labor, less use of chemicals in the environment
41. • Inputs – All fish food is in the system,
small fish left behind as stock for next year
rice requires input of small amounts of
urea, N,P,K and optional lime or manure
• System Characteristics – uses native fish,
polyculture using natural principles of
ecosystem interaction, sustainable
42. • Socio-cultural - tenant farmers improve
income, in china industrialization threatens
its continued use
• Environmental Impacts – may use
pesticides but generally less than
alternatives, reducing CH4 emissions
compared to normal systems
• Outputs – fish and rice, 2 rice crops per
43. Norwegian Salmon Farms
• Norway and Chile produce 2/3 of the
world’s farmed salmon
• 60% of world’s salmon is farmed
• High input system of penned fish in ocean
areas or on land – depends on pellet food
derived from wild caught fish
• High density high waste systems
44. Norwegian Salmon farms
• Inputs – need pellets for feed made from
fishing for smaller fish in the ocean,
• System characteristics – monoculture –
disease susceptible so antibiotics used,
may selectively breed stocks, human
manipulated
• Socio-cultural – farming operations
provide local jobs, if effecting local
fisheries that effects jobs as well
45.
46. • Environmental Impacts – 100,000’s
escape cultivation & threaten native fish,
farmed fish less effective reproducers than
natural but their offspring are more
successful
• Outputs – antibiotics, nutrients causing
eutrophication,
47. Fish change form
Fish enter rivers
and head for
spawning areas
Grow to smolt
and enter the ocean...
Grow to maturity
in Pacific Ocean
in 1-2 years
Eggs and young are
cared for in the hatchery
Fry hatch in the spring...
Fingerlings migrate downstream
In the fall spawning salmon
deposit eggs in gravel nests and die
Normal
Life
Cycle
Fingerlings
are released into river
And grow in the stream
for 1-2 years
Human capture
Salmon
processing
plant
Eggs are taken from adult
females and fertilized with
sperm “milked” from males
Modified
Life
Cycle
To hatchery
48. Food Production Systems are
linked to social systems
• Modern US
– Developed, high tech, high fossil fuel input
– Value speed and convenience
– Capitalism based revenue generation
– Removed from food production so don’t see
negative results
– We are willing to compromise environmental
health for the benefits now from pesticides,
inorganic fertilizers, machine harvest etc.
50. 4% 2% 6% 5%
17% of total
commercial
energy use
Crops Livestock Food processing Food distribution and preparation
Food production
51. Think back to the rice-fish
system
• Tied to asian cultures as a historical
practice
• But asian culture is changing more
cosmopolitan more movement to cities
• Could threaten this model system
• It is a form that keeps soil fertility high in
areas with high population density this can
be used on the outskirts to maximize
production per area.
52. Can the green movement
• Swing our culture to sustainable food
production?
• People interested in organic foods
• Green production – boutique types of
grocers and restaurants
• Benefits the planet and trendy
53. Increase
High-yield
polyculture
Organic fertilizers
Biological pest
control
Integrated pest
management
Irrigation efficiency
Perennial crops
Crop rotation
Use of more water-
efficient crops
Soil conservation
Subsidies for
more sustainable
farming and
fishing
Decrease
Soil erosion
Soil salinization
Aquifer depletion
Overgrazing
Overfishing
Loss of
biodiversity
Loss of prime
cropland
Food waste
Subsidies for
unsustainable
farming and
fishing
Population growth
Poverty
